ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Missouri Baptist men's volleyball bounced back from a 3-0 sweep at Park earlier this week with two sweeps of their own at the MBU Spartan Invitational on Friday afternoon. The Spartans defeated both Clarke University and the seventh-ranked Saint Xavier Cougars in three sets to push their overall record to 15-3.
MBU walked all over the Pride in the first match, defeating them 25-14, 25-19, and 25-19 to give them their fourteenth win of the season.
Most of the bench got involved in the afternoon meetup, but it was
Luka Cajic's 14 kills and .722 hitting percentage that carried the Spartans to the victory.
Mario Lucas collected eight kills of his own while
Jason Harman and freshman
Job Faber split the setting duties gathering 20 and 13 kills, respectively.
As a team, the Spartans hit .405, piled up 40 kills, and led the game in nearly every category.
In the opening set against St. Xavier, the home team led for a majority of the time, eventually finding themselves one point away from a 1-0 lead.
They saw their 24-21 advantage begin to slip after two kills by Grant Ooms drew the score to within one. Determined not to give away the first set, Harman set up
Mario Lucas for a kill that put the Spartans ahead early.
MBU jumped on the Cougars in the second frame with a quick 6-2 run. St. Xavier hung with the Spartans however and worked the score to a 21-22 deficit. Another kill by Ooms followed by a Cougar service error pushed things to 23-22.
A
Gabe Norsigian kill put the Spartans one point away and the clutch hitting Lucas finished off the set exactly how he did in the first one.
Up 2-0, Missouri Baptist rode the momentum from the first two sets to a dominating 25-14 set three victory, giving them a sweep of the nation's seventh-best team.
Lucas came up big for the Spartans on Friday evening hitting a game-high .450 with nine kills and eight digs.
Skyler Capllonch quietly went about his game, collecting 11 digs.
The Spartans are back in action on Tuesday, February 18 to take on the Lincoln College Lynx in Lincoln, Illinois. The opening serve is scheduled for 6 p.m.
